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Africa to Account For 2.6% Of Global Economy in 2014

Africa will account for 2.6 percent of the world economy next year – the biggest slice it has taken in over three decades.

This is according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which added that the African continent currently accounted for 13 percent of the world total and “underscores just how far there is to go,” the Financial Times reported at the weekend.

However, FT also reported that the speed with which the region experiences economic growth is currently slower that the pre-international financial crises of 2007- 2008.

“But it is picking up a little, with the IMF forecasting GDP growth of 6 percent in 2014, up from 5 percent in 2013,” the newspaper reported in its Money Supply insert.

Abebe Selassie, one of the high-ranking directors at IMF’s Africa division, said: “The bottle is a bit more on the full side.”

Domestic demand and investment in export infrastructure will be the major drivers of demand in Africa’s economies, bolstering the region’s economy.

According to the IMF, sub-Saharan Africa’s price increases have been predicted to hover at around 6.3 percent in the next year.

This has been described as the lowest annual average for the region’s inflation growth in at least three decades.

“Inflation in the region is expected to remain moderate in 2013-14, reflecting continuing disinflation in low-income countries and benign prospects for food prices,” the IMF said in a report.